The present invention relates in general to motor vehicles, and more particularly, to a system for pinpointing the location of a parked motor vehicle. When activated by the user at a point distant from the sought after vehicle, the system causes the vehicle to emit a distinctive, attention getting, audible signal or visual signal, or a combination of both (hereinafter referred to as an audible/visual signal), thus locating the vehicle for the user.
In today's world, it is a frequent occurrence for people to park and leave their motor vehicle in large and highly congested parking areas such as those found at shopping centers and airports. Upon returning to the parking area to retrieve their vehicle, they quite occasionally find themselves enmeshed in an annoying and time consuming scenario of trying to locate their vehicle amongst all the other seemingly look-alike vehicles in the lot. Search time can be extended appreciably with the onset of darkness or inclement weather, perhaps leading to a very exasperating and potentially dangerous situation.
One proposed solution to the problem is disclosed by Kolm et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 3,506,956. This patent described an automobile recognition system which employs a specially designed illuminating automobile fixture which when activated emits a visual signal to assist an owner in locating his car. The illuminating automobile fixture is activated by an acoustical switch in response to an audible whistle blast of a particular frequency produced by the owner in the general vicinity of his car. The Kolm et al. system includes a variable resistor which allows the owner to vary the rate at which the illuminating automobile fixture flashes, supposably thereby enhancing the owner's ability to identify his particular automobile in a lot containing a number of vehicles equipped with such a sound sensitive identification system.
The Kolm et al. automobile recognition system, however, has several inherent drawbacks. For example, the signaling scheme used offers little opportunity for system individuality, either in terms of the location identifying signal emitted in response to a whistle blast or the transmitter/receiver system activation link. In a parking lot having a large number of automobiles fitted with such a recognition system, one operator's whistle blast is likely to inadvertently set off several systems, which would impair the operator's ability to recognize his own activated system and thwart the system's intended purpose of clearly signaling the location of a specific parked vehicle. As the Kolm et al. patent describes, some limited system individuality is obtained by varying the rate at which the owner's fixture flashes, and possibly the fixture's color and/or shape. The owner, however, would still have to determine from flashing rate, color and/or shape, which system in a plurality of activated systems is indicating the location of his parked vehicle. In addition, the system activation signaling scheme used requires the operator activating the system to be within a limited range of his motor vehicle and to direct the ultrasonic transmissions in the general direction of the vehicle being sought. An additional shortcoming of this system is that it only produces a visual signal, thereby making it less effective in daylight.
Thus, there presently exists a genuine need for a motor vehicle locator system which has an easy to use, reliable, operator programmable, activation scheme and which when activated provides a unique operator selectable location identifying signal consisting of a readily discernable audible/visual pattern.